Thursday Sketching

Some days I feel like I'm breaking down. Some days I'm the strongest one around. Either way, I'm still pushing through, trying to figure out what humans do.

I'm stumbling, I'm rising, falling, realizing I'm changing. Still fighting, still learning, still trying. I am no script, no plan, no perfect version. This is simply being human. This is simply being human.

I've carried doubts like heavy stones.

and realizing I'm changing. Still fighting, still learning, still trying. No script, no plan, no perfect version. This is simply being human. This is simply being human. I'm not here to be flawless. I'm not Hey, hello, Jason Nicholas Nicholas with The Inspired Life.

It is Thursday, March 26th, 2026. I hope you're having an awesome day. It's, um, it's been a good day here. Really, really beautiful afternoon. Like, spring is, I think, finally here. Don't want to jinx anything, but yeah, it's, uh, it's good to be on tonight for a few. I want to do some sketching. I haven't sketched yet today. Um, I've been busy doing other stuff, getting ready to, uh, head out on spring break soon. So I'm popping on and I'm gonna, I'm gonna practice. We're gonna practice tonight, something I don't usually say. I'm gonna— I've been getting requests for the Pepsi-Cola sign, so we're just gonna have fun playing around. I've never sketched it before, and, um, we'll just think of this— my creative intention tonight is a just a creative sandbox where we're just gonna build and create and have fun. And if the water comes and washes it away, I don't care. It's just about being in the moment, being creative, throwing some colors down, some ink down, and having fun. So let me look in the chat. I'll say hello to everybody and, uh, we'll get rocking here. Hope you're having a great, great day. Let me also know if the music is too loud. I am playing my my playlist that I created. Um, link is over in the comments notes if you want to check it out. Hey, Gigi's in the house! Great to see you, hope all's well. Please let me know if the music is too loud or not. I hope you're doing well, my friend. It's always a pleasure and always awesome to see you in the house. The house. I'm actually going to turn the music up a little bit in my end because I can barely hear it, but let me know if it's too loud, guys. I appreciate your feedback. I'd like to listen to about this level. Edie's in the house! Good to see you, Edie. Hope you're doing well. It's always fun to see you. I'm so glad you've been popping in. Um, we have such a great group going here. Thank you guys again. Let me know if the music is drowning me out. I can definitely lower it, or I can stop talking. Let's just listen. All right, practice. I have a picture of the Pepsi-Cola sign. Let's see what happens. Never sketched it, guys. Never ever sketched it. So Let me put it on screen. There it is. So that's a partial picture of the Pepsi Cola sign. I have a few pictures. I kind of like it. I like that it's cut off a little bit. And, um, let's just play around and bring my magic to guys. Just want to show you kind of what I'm looking at today. Um, I'll leave it on screen. We'll do something different tonight. I know, I know I'll get those troll comments that are like, your sketch looks nothing like the picture. I love getting those comments because you know what my answer is? That means I did my job.

Put me in a pinstripe, slick my hair back neat. Got a cup in my hand and I'm bouncing on my feet. They're snapping fingers, keeping time real slow. Meanwhile, my thoughts are doing parkour, no chill, go!

Clock on the wall says quarter past 9, my pulse says we are out.

Swing says sway, my brain says sprint. I tip my hat, but I already blink. They say easy, kid, enjoy the groove. I say sorry, this coffee won't approve.

I'm too wide for 19-2s.

This beat says heaven, my mind says 7 tabs over thoughts and a double-time spin. I respect the swing, but I'm settling in. Too wide for 19 haters, that hurts. Call it progress, call it a threat. I was born in the future with a vintage debt.

Swing says snap, brain says go, time says wait, coffee says no.

This is what happens when swing meets grit. Too white for not to eat anything. I love the room, but I won't pretend.

If history asks me to calm right down, I'll finish my cup and burn the town.

Lovely era, wrong caffeine level.

Lovely era.

Wrong caffeine level.

All right, this is fun. Yeah, Pepsi call. I know, it's It's the, uh, it's the, uh, caffeine-less, um, the less caffeine, less caffeinated version of Pepsi-Cola. We just get the Col, not the A. I can probably guess what the A looks like. I don't know, let's go, let's go for it. I don't know, it probably looks like, um, the letter A. Music loudness is fine, though rock isn't my genre. Cool. Yeah, I'd love to know what kind of music you guys like. Put it in, in the chat. We are having an exclusive sketch here. This is it. You guys are the first to witness me practicing the Pepsi call sign. I wanted to practice it before I put it in— before I put it into the calendar. So welcome to the exclusive sneak peek. All right, I gotta find a picture. I gotta see what the A looks like. Oh, you like that? Did you like the, um, the swing track? That's cool. Yeah, so on this track you're gonna hear a mix. This is my coffee, my coffee cafe inspired playlist. Um, I generated the songs and came up with all the concepts. So the whole album, if you listen to the playlist, is kind of a story of, um, sitting in a coffee shop and stories you might overhear, things you might see in a coffee shop. Um, did you ever sit like in a coffee shop or, or anywhere and imagine what the people are talking about, what their backstory is? Um, just people watching. So I wanted to write music, um, of course with the help of AI. And I, I— yeah, this is AI-generated music, believe it or not. And I'm all for it, but not for taking money away from true musicians and artists. This is just for my own personal amusement, and I wanted to try to, to do storytelling in a different way through music. I can't sing music, I can't play any music, I can't write music, but I have really a lot of creative ideas and storytelling I wanted to do. So this is kind of a collab I did, but you'll hear stories like different cafe-inspired stories. So some are wacky, some are chill, some are emo. Um, you'll hear— you'll definitely hear a lot of kind of grunge music. I like Nirvana and grunge and stuff. And some of it was therapeutic to write, actually. I needed to write some of this and get it out of my head. Just like sketching is good therapy, and for me, writing this album and these songs, some of them were really good, um, kind of therapy as well. Can you believe I don't have the— I don't have the letter A in any of my pictures I took? What was I thinking? I have to go back to Long Island City and get pictures. Oh. I took live— I used the live thing a lot on my pictures. I took a video of one here.

Let's see.

Yeah, the playlist link is in my show notes, so if you guys go If you go into the, um, show notes, the comments, uh, feel free to please check it out and let me know. The link, the link should be on there. You guys could copy and paste it. All right, I, I have to Google a picture of the Pepsi Cola sign. All right, add that to my New York City list. Get a picture of the letter A. I also did a whole holiday-inspired, uh, coffee shop soundtrack as well. I did that during winter holiday. It was kind of fun. All right, let me, uh, Oh, all right, I got a picture. I got the A, I can add it.

Let me know.

The buffering should stop. Thanks for telling me the red circle of doom should be stopping.

Heart, a scarf, a handwritten thanks for staying open when no one else will. I lock the door, snow still falling, light hums low, night feels kind. Turns out sometimes the ones you serve end up serving you back just in time.

All right guys, I, um, hopefully I'm back with the buffering is gone.

A story I'd like to tell of a journey that's often filled with pain and glory, an emotional roller coaster ride. Life is not a race but a journey to You'll be savored each step of the way, each and every day. And the name of this journey is life. I was born in the land down under, an only child in a traditional family. My parents Like many of their generation, never showed affection. They didn't hug, kiss, or say I love you.

Instead, they would tell me that I had big ears, that my skin was too pale, and that That I should eat more.

They did this because they wanted me to fit in, so I'd have friends and be accepted.

But this had the opposite effect. It caused me to be introverted. And extremely shy. But as life's journey continued, I began to find myself.

My personality started to blossom.

All right, what do you guys think?

Is that— how's that looking? It's looking kind of cool. I've been jonesing to EVOL Intended Drum and Bass 70-minute mix. I don't skip over a single track. Not a typo, it's EVOL. Awesome drumming. I love that. Tell us a little more, it sounds interesting. It's fixed, thank you. Tell us more, what kind of music do you guys like? I'd love to know. What are your musical vibes? I'm pretty open to anything. I have to admit though, I'm not really a big country music fan, and maybe because I haven't listened to enough of it. But, you know, I can go anywhere from Barry Manilow to Neil Diamond to Metallica to— I love movie soundtracks and instrumental soundtracks. I think we may have talked about it before. I think Gigi knows, you know, Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman. Two of my favorite Hollywood composers. I love— I could listen to techno music, I can listen to Deadmau5, I can listen to all kinds of music. Classical, I love. One of my favorite instruments is an electric cello. I love listening to music with electric cellos in it. I don't know why, it's just a sound I really love. So orchestra music is awesome. Classic rock, uh, I can just keep going and going. I think you get the point. Grunge, you know, alternative, '90s grunge, alternative. I'm a kid of the '80s. I'll take Huey Lewis and the News any day. Music is one of the things that just drives me in life. Oh, the Bond movie soundtracks! Yes, love that you said that. 100%. Yeah, I love, I love the Bond soundtracks. Um, one of my favorites is, uh, man, I— do I have a favorite? Of course, I love the classic Bond theme that's been done so many different times. Um, Chris Cornell's version, um, oh dang, what movie did he do? He did a Bond movie, I'm trying to think of it, but I love his rendition. And Adele and Sheryl Crow, Paul McCartney, like all these amazing artists that have, you know, sang James Bond theme songs. Uh, the instrumental music is great. It's— love that you said that. This is cool. Is this worthy, guys? Is this worthy of being in the calendar? Should I try to redo it? I kind of like the clean background, you know. I feel like— I don't know if I should do the Pepsi Cola sign, keep it clean like this, or, or do I throw it onto an abstract background? I know I'm done. I am not sure. Oh, I know you think I nailed it. Um, I think you're being way too kind. I don't know if I really— if I really nailed it. Yeah, thanks. I mean, this was my first crack at it, to be honest with you, so I kind of like it. Sometimes your chat freezes and you post like 5 entries in a row without a response, then I come out and back and there are 15 other entries. Ugh. Yeah, Edie, I get it. I get the tech frustrations. Yeah, sorry on my end. I don't know. I know what happened. I opened that other window, um, looking for pictures of the sign, so I know not to open any more, um, Google windows while I'm live streaming, so thanks for bearing with me. I appreciate sticking it through. Hans Zimmer is the Lord itself. Yes, yes, Gigi, I am sure that you probably really appreciate the Lord of the Rings soundtrack music, right? The Lord of the Rings soundtrack is incredible. Um, I am trying to think of who did the music for the Lord of the Rings. I got the whole song in my head. Who did the albums? Yeah, this is cool. Here's what we're gonna do. I think I'm gonna rip this page out. We're gonna put it on one of those abstract backgrounds and see what it looks like. So it is now time for tonight's cut and paste segment. We're gonna tear this page out, we're gonna tear this page out, and we're gonna put it on one of those abstract backgrounds and see what it looks like. Just kind of cut this out.

I couldn't close it.

All right, let's try it. Let's do a little experimentation, guys. Yes, Howard Shore! Thank you, Howard Shore. Yeah, he's another great composer. And of course, John Williams is— John Williams is epic. In, in the movie industry. You know, I say John Williams, Star Wars comes to my brain first. Star Wars, Superman, what hasn't he done? Let's check this out. So I think I'm gonna cut around the edge here. And we're just going to collage it on here and see what it looks like. Pirates— I love the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack. Of course, I love any of the Batman soundtracks. Especially Danny Elfman.

But let me be quiet, this is a nice song. Of pure caffeination. Put the cup in my hand, put the drink in my system, put a drip in my eye, or just say that you missed him. Said it once and I'll say it again, so just Just listen, this is pure caffeination. Rats and bats and alley cats and toads upon the vine. This is my creation, just a bit of everything in fact.

This world sublime.

For you, and it's so divine.

Pure caffeination. I put the cup in my hand, I put the drink in my system, I put a drip in my eye.

Or just say that you missed him, said it once, And I'll say it again, so just listen. This is pure cabernet. Sugar, spice, or pickled ice, it's all up to your taste. Snips and snails and puppy tails in moderation. A little mix of everything and no time left to waste. For in this cup of coffee, there's a trace of pure caffeination.

Put the cup in my hand and put the drink in my system and put a drip in my eye, or just say that you missed him.

Said it once and I'll say it again, so just listen. This is pure— Caffeination. Rats and bats and alley cats and toads upon the vine. This is my creation, just a bit of everything.

Edie, have a great night. It's good seeing you. Thank you so much for tuning in. Appreciate your feedback as always. Thank you so much. Hope to see you soon. Be well. Hey, Paula's in the house. Paula Loves Art, good to see you. Hope you're doing well. Welcome in tonight. So, um, so in my brain I'm just looking at the collage. I like the idea of putting this on one of these backgrounds, so I'm debating which one I like better, or I might just paint another one. I think I like this I like this one better.

I think it pops more.

So those are a couple options. I might do a background that's more— I'm kind of itching to see what it would look like on a red. I don't have another page, but like a red Excuse me, maybe like a red background. I don't, I don't have red construction paper or anything to mock it up right now. All right, but I think that's cool. I think with the idea, so this might be a keeper, guys. The Pepsi Cola sign. Although I might think my P looks like an L a little bit. I like the other one better. Pops the sign alone. GG saying, um, so GG, do you mean option— let's call this option 1. Do you guys like option 1 better? I kind of like it at an angle too. So you guys like option 1 better or option 2? So going to the eye doctor, 1, 2, 2, 3. I can't make up my mind. Or option 3 is a blank page. I'm gonna do one last thing, one last thing tonight, guys. Um, I can't get out of my brain, so I'm gonna throw down some red. I'm gonna throw down some red on this page, and this will be the last thing we do tonight. Okay, appreciate you guys hanging out with me. Thank you so much. I know it's late. I was not meaning to be on this late. But I wanted to come on, and this is— this is what I love. So thank you for hanging with me for a few. I appreciate it. One, you can add things to option one. So I, I was toying around with adding, um, the buildings behind the sign. Yeah, can I show you that? Look what I— it's not art unless what? Wear it. There we go, it is artwork officially.

All right. Day because I can't describe, shake it, and we— espresso machines got nothing on me. I like the way you're Smile takes over your face. The color of your eyes is brighter than my filled lantern. Can't stop shaking. And the espresso machines got nothing on me.

You look like a heartbreaker. What you wearing that for?

Am I invisible? Do you know that I'm here?

I'm a big dumb boy, but I'm not stupid, my dear.

I can feel your eyes on me like Magnet. Oh, I can feel your eyes on me like a magnet. Oh.

I'm the guy from your video, and you need a man who can do everything.

Oh, we can stay in tonight, or we can leave right now.

I don't really care as long as I'm with you, girl.

I can feel your eyes on me like a magnet. Oh, I can feel your eyes on me like a magnet.

Oh.

I can feel your eyes on me like a magnet. Oh, I can feel your eyes on me like a magnet. Oh.

One pump this, oh milk that. I swear it wasn't this deep when I walked in back. Burritos and knives, typing fast. Keyboard sounds like judgment passed.

I just wanted something warm and cheap, now my order's got a character arc this week. The card.

Don't look down. Paper starts unspooling to the ground.

The receipt is a novel. Every choice I ever made. Far too small, but it knows me, knows my flaws, knows my taste.

I came All right, I'm not sure. Yeah, so I'm not sure either. Um, GG's like, not bad, not bad. Um, I actually like this as just a separate background. I don't know if it's for the Pepsi sign, but this could be a cool background for another sketch. Um, let's just go back to the other one. We'll take a last look here. We'll let that one dry. And this is the one, the one that's getting the highest vote right now. Which one is it? Where the heck is it? There's the Chrysler from last night. Here. Yeah, I kind of— I see what you're saying about this one. If I had something— if I added— I like the color palette. I'm, I'm I'm thinking I would add some more, not too much, but I kind of think I would add a little bit more of this green on here. Um, the green. I also like the touches of that kind of blue there. Maybe there's just something nice about the simplicity of the background on this, right? Instead of going, this is like crazy Cray-Cray City. This is more calm, and I don't know if I would do the buildings in the background. So I'm leaning, I'm leaning towards this as well. I would trim out the edges a little bit differently here, kind of not clean but maybe a little ragged. Ragged-ish. All right, we clean up, see if there's any final questions or comments in the chat. That's a fun color, I haven't used that color yet. All right guys, um, I think that's gonna be a wrap. I I don't know if I'll be on tomorrow night. I have to pack tomorrow. Um, yeah, I gotta pack, do the laundry, then I need to pack, and I need a good night's sleep. Um, although I don't have to be to the airport too early Saturday, so that's good. So I don't worry about getting up that early. Um, but I haven't started packing. But I kind of, I kind of know what I want to bring, so not a biggie. And, um, yeah, hopefully I might be on. If not, I will definitely see you guys and log back in and stream live when I get back into the States. Um, maybe I'll pop in with a live or two, you know, just a quick show and tell while I'm away. That's how the service is and what the time is like. I'll try to post some pictures as well, so make sure you're following me on Instagram. So Instagram, I'm @the.inkspired.life. If you just look up @the.inkspired.life, you should find it. So follow me on Insta, um, and if you're following me on YouTube, that's awesome. If you're not, I'd love for you to follow me and subscribe there, give me the thumbs up button, and let's keep the magic and the fun and the positivity just growing in this, uh, community. We have some amazing people that are showing up, and I love you guys. You're awesome. Thank you so much. It's been so cool. And we'll have to solve the saga of the— well, uncork the Pepsi-Cola. Mystery. And if you want to hear a fun song, this is called Wordle. It's about someone spoiling the Wordle answer and the guy's angry about hearing the answer. This is a fun song. So after this song ends, I'll shut down. 4-hour wait, JFK. Thank you for the warning. Yeah, I'm flying out of Newark, and Newark is, uh, up there as well, so we're getting there 4 hours early. Hopefully that's enough. Positive vibes, guys. I'm not trying to be selfish. There's a whole world out there traveling, so positive vibes for everybody trying to get through their lines to their destinations. Um, don't even get me started. I'm just gonna smile. I'm not, I'm not a political person. At all. And, um, it's just unfortunate circumstances right now. And the simple people that just want to get away are the worst. We're suffering big time. And that's all I'm going to say. Thank you, Luck with Luck on My Trip. Thank you so much. Wish one of you guys could guest host for me.

How easy could it be? And the first one was saying, the answer is unite. The answer is unite. The answer is unite. The answer is unite.

So shut the flip I'm glad you like it.

Yeah, this is a fun song. I have a story related to this, actually. Something I witnessed at a hockey game years ago.

All right, that's cool.

That was called Wordle. It's about someone spoiling the Wordle for a dude sitting in a cafe, and he got really upset. Um, I'm gonna end with the story, so I went to a Devils hockey game years ago, and, uh, there's a line to get into the restroom, and there was a conversation that was about, uh, I think it was American Idol. American Idol. Um, people were talking about it, and they said who won or something, and there was almost a fistfight because another person heard it, and there was a whole spoiler issue, and It was crazy. So yeah, so they were fighting, I think, about the results of American Idol. And no, we're not here to fight. I'm here to leave, uh, you guys with a positive vibe. Thank you so much for watching tonight. Hope you enjoyed the soundtrack. Please go in the link here on the notes, you can see the playlist, and, uh, sign up, join my musical playlist. I'll be creating more songs. I have some more in the works. It's just another fun outlet and something I like doing. Until we meet again, guys, sketch boldly, live creatively, and inspire endlessly. I don't know, Gigi, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm liking that background. So we'll see where it goes. All right guys, stay tuned for some European adventures. Appreciate you guys too. Sweet dreams.